food sandwiched between hospital and home life

05/13/201805/13/2018

Turkey Burgers

Worryingly, my 2 year old woke up at 4am mumbling, not for his mummy or milk but for a “Cheeseburger”!!! Later that day, I figured I’d better come up with something cheeseburgerish that had some veg in to appease the beast…

Ingredients (for 6 burgers)

500g Turkey mince

handful of breadcrumbs (I whizzed up a bit of 2-day old baguette)

1 small white or red onion, peeled.

about 250g of spinach (whatever you get in 1 bag)

1 clove of garlic, crushed or finely chopped

100g frozen peas (defrosted – you can put them in a colander run the under the hot water to tap to speed this up)

50g of cashew nuts (I actually planned to use pine nuts but found I’d run out, so went with cashew – turns out, works just fine)

Salt and pepper

Some English Cheddar (enough to melt over the top of your burgers)

6 Burger buns

Method

Wash the spinach and drain. Heat a little olive oil in a large frying pan and add the garlic before it begins to colour, add the spinach and cover with a lid for about 1 minute. When you remove the lid stir the spinach well and you should find that it will have wilted massively and loads of water will have come out of it. If it hasn’t, just keep on the heat for a few more mins. Remove from the heat to a colander and squeeze the water out.

Place the onion in the food processor and blitz it for a bit until finely chopped, add the breadcrumbs, nuts, spinach and peas, blitz again until they are all chopped but not necessarily a paste.

In a large bowl, combine the food processor mixture and the turkey mince and season with the salt and pepper.

Divide the mixture into 10-12 little burgers (or 6 big ones if you prefer). I find that it is easier to shape and divide with wet hands. Place the burgers on an oiled greaseproof paper sheet or on a silicone sheet and let them chill before cooking if u can. This helps them keep their shape and not fall apart too much – especially useful if you are going to cook them on a barbecue grill.

You can freeze some at this point (if the mince was not frozen before); freeze them on the sheet and when solid, you can put them in a freezer bag and seal it.

Cooking – I like to put them on a non-stick frying pan and keep the heat quite low so the fat from the burgers gently renders out and they end up frying in their own fat. Be careful not let them burn by having the heat too high.

When they are almost done, place a slice of the cheddar on each burger while still in the pan and cover the frying pan with a lid, keep the heat low and the cheese will melt.